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Crikey editor’s mongrel of an apology

Crikey editor Jonathan Green has been forced to apologise for the online magazine’s appalling slur on the Down Syndrome baby of US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

They put forward in their “name Barack Obama’s puppy” contest the suggestion: “A Mongrel Called Trig”.

Only after the matter was highlighted by conservative columnists did Crikey act.

Green writes, “The galling part of course, is giving ammunition to the billious [sic] rabble of the blogging far right.” It sounds like he’s only apologising because he’s been busted.

And just what does he mean when he says, “… it somehow made our shortlist, and then hopped onto the polling page”? It seems they don’t post items at Crikey, they just take on a life of their own and “hop” frog-like on to the page.

Crikey got one part of this right – use of the word “mongrel”. It seems like a pretty good description of their brand of “journalism”.

About half way through last night’s edition of ABC1’s normally feisty Q&A, this tweet appeared: “Great diversity of opinion expressed politely tonight…”. A tweet earlier in the program might explain why.

Right-of-centre views were well represented on Monday night’s edition of ABC1’s Q&A panel program. It recalled the 11 Feb. edition of the program last year when George Brandis and James Paterson had a very good time at the expense of the lefties.

Chris Kenny, Australian columnist-blogger and host of Viewpoint and Friday Live on Sky News Australia, recalls his experiece with the ABC for the “Diary” column in this week’s edition of The Spectator Australia.

Last Saturday, in their special election morning edition of ABC’s News Breakfast, Michael Rowland and Virginia Trioli took a look at “the great campaign moments this year” and announced awards for campaign winner and loser.